I applied to OfCom for a Notice of Variation to my Licence to permit me to operate on the band, and now have an extension which is valid up to the end of June 2015, and permits up to 200W PEP on the seven 3kHz-wide channels shown below, using Morse, (USB) telephony or data (including SSTV).
| Channel name | Frequency range (MHz) | Notes |
| FA | 5.2585 - 5.2615 | |
| FB | 5.2785 - 5.2815 | |
| FC | 5.2885 - 5.2915 | 5.290 reserved for beacon use |
| FK | 5.3665 - 5.3695 | |
| FL | 5.3715 - 5.3745 | |
| FE | 5.3985 - 5.4015 | Most popular calling/working channel |
| FM | 5.4035 - 5.4065 |
My FT817 will transmit on 5MHz, and the aerials which I have available are a random end-fed wire running around my garden, plus a resonant inverted-V loaded dipole, both of which should be good for the Near-Vertical Incidence Sky-wave (NVIS) propagation mode.
The inverted-V runs East-West, and seems to work better than the random-length end-fed wire.
The loading coils reduce the length of the legs by about 5m each, and hence the floorspace required by more than 10m, so that it will fit into my garden, and it's more convenient for portable operation too!
All using just 5 Watts into the inverted-V dipole or end-fed wire.
| Station | Location | Time of day | Distance (km) | Notes |
| G3ZGP | Weymouth, Dorset | late afternoon | 324 | Richard, with 100W into dipole. |
| G0HNW | Holmfirth, W. Yorkshire | mid-day | 45 | Paul, receiving me better on his vertical. |
| MM1MAJ/P | Cairnpapple Hill, South Scotland | late afternoon | 274 | Martyn, 5W from SOTA SS254. |
| G3PLX | Kendal, Cumbria | late afternoon | 70 | Peter, struggling to hear me. |
| G0UOO | Folkestone | late morning | 365 | Rob, using 100W into 40m dipole. Deep fading. |
| G0HNW | Holmfirth, W. Yorkshire | mid-day | 45 | Paul, still better on his vertical. Ground-wave? |
| G4MD/P | Firle Beacon, E. Sussex | early afternoon | 352 | Paul, from SOTA SE010. |
| GM3TAY/P | Berneray Is, Outer Hebredies | mid-morning | 550 | Alan, with 120W. |
| G3XZV | Knaresborough | mid-morning | 83 | John, huge signal with 120W into his inverted-V. |
| G3RMD | Cheltenham | mid-day | 186 | Frank, with 10W and 80W into inverted-V. |
| G1AJI | Bolton | late evening | 8 | Mike, deep fades even at this short range. |
| GW3RMD/P | Mynydd Twyn-glas, nr Cwmbran | early afternoon | 212 | Frank, on SOTA SW-019. |
| GW4PMG/P | Tywyn, Gwynedd | evening | 154 | Martin, with low dipole. |
If you've got an NoV and would like to try a sked, then drop me an email.